{"id":3660,"date":"2019-04-30T20:58:01","date_gmt":"2019-04-30T20:58:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/ciresblogs.colorado.edu\/prometheus\/?p=3660"},"modified":"2019-04-30T20:58:02","modified_gmt":"2019-04-30T20:58:02","slug":"whats-so-funny-about-climate-change","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ciresblogs.colorado.edu\/prometheus\/2019\/04\/30\/whats-so-funny-about-climate-change\/","title":{"rendered":"What\u2019s So Funny About Climate Change?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

CU Boulder Today<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

photo above: Daniel Hood performs stand-up comedy as a tree. Photo: Chelsea Hackett.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Environmental researchers know the problem all too well: the science on climate change is clear, but people won\u2019t listen. For most people, perusing the latest 500-plus page report on global warming projections is more likely to inspire a nap than a drastic switch to a zero-waste lifestyle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Beth Osnes and Max Boykoff, associate professors of theatre and environmental studies, respectively, have a suggestion: trade in thesis statements for punchlines.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 2012, they helped launch the\u00a0Inside the Greenhouse<\/a>\u00a0project at CU Boulder to explore comedy and other unique ways of framing issues surrounding climate change.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As part of the project, students in their spring 2019 \u201cCreative Climate Communications\u201d\u00a0class<\/a>\u00a0took the stage Thursday to perform climate change-themed comedy in front of a packed Old Main theatre. Some student performers were dressed head-to-toe as wind turbines while others took on more traditional stand-up sets.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Good-natured humor about nature<\/strong>
While it would be easy to fall into dark humor with the often apocalyptic nature of climate change conversations, Thursday\u2019s show, \u201cStand Up for Climate Change,\u201d took a light-hearted approach.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cClimate change especially is an issue associated with gloom and doom, guilt and fear\u2014all negative emotions that most people would much rather avoid than confront,\u201d said Osnes. \u201cThrough comedy, we hope to make an encounter with issues surrounding climate a positive one, which we hope will contribute towards more sustained pro-environmental action.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Students created comedy to specifically communicate one of the\u00a0Drawdown<\/a><\/em>\u00a0solutions to reverse global warming\u2014a list of concrete steps to reduce the concentration of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To explore the environmental benefits of switching to a plant-rich diet, for example, a group of students imagined the challenges of selling meat substitutes to a caveman in a modern grocery store.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Joey Filmanowicz, Kyle Fowler and Jules Murtha parody David Bowie and The Beatles. Photo: Chelsea Hackett.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

\u201cA lot of people aren\u2019t taught to talk about that information in a way that will be received by other people,\u201d said Jules Murtha, a senior theatre student who parodied The Beatles\u2019 Let It Be<\/em> on Thursday. \u201cI think that comedy is a really great way to do that.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Many in the class, which is typically split between environmental studies, ATLAS and theatre students, went in with little to no performance experience. The idea of a comedy-based final, for most, made syllabus week for scary than funny.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cYou could witness the shock on other classmates\u2019 faces because most of them have never performed in their lives,\u201d said Murtha. \u201cWhen they were told that they would have to get up on stage and try to make people laugh, they were terrified.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A social experiment<\/strong>
Don\u2019t be fooled by the laughter and silly costumes, Osnes and Boykoff are also conducting real science through the course.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The pair first connected in 2011 and Boykoff says this is the fourth time they\u2019ve been able to teach this class together. Published in January, they drew on that experience in a joint\u00a0study<\/a>\u00a0in\u00a0Political Geography<\/em>\u00a0on the efficacy of communicating climate science through humor.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThis work is showing that we can open up new pathways to discussing, considering and engaging with climate change,\u201d said Boykoff.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While the exact recipe for the class is still evolving after eight years, one ingredient has remained the same: fun.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIf you can create positive association with climate change, you\u2019ve done something right,\u201d said Beth Osnes. \u201cOur goal in doing this is not to make light of the seriousness of this issue, but rather to bring light to a sustainable path forward.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

CU Boulder Today photo above: Daniel Hood performs stand-up comedy as a tree. Photo: Chelsea Hackett. Environmental researchers know the problem all too well: the science on climate change is clear, but people won\u2019t listen. For most people, perusing the … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":32,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3660","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-08-31 13:56:48","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ciresblogs.colorado.edu\/prometheus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3660","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ciresblogs.colorado.edu\/prometheus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ciresblogs.colorado.edu\/prometheus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ciresblogs.colorado.edu\/prometheus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/32"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ciresblogs.colorado.edu\/prometheus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3660"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/ciresblogs.colorado.edu\/prometheus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3660\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3663,"href":"https:\/\/ciresblogs.colorado.edu\/prometheus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3660\/revisions\/3663"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ciresblogs.colorado.edu\/prometheus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3660"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ciresblogs.colorado.edu\/prometheus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3660"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ciresblogs.colorado.edu\/prometheus\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3660"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}